AOC's visit to the border reveals why we need more leaders to participate

Plato reminds us that “one of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” By inferior, Plato meant the leader's character.

This week while most of us were on vacation, our border agents were subjected to the adolescent behavior of Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (aka AOC) during a media staged visit to Texas border facilities.

Representative AOC added to her previous allegations that border officials are conducting unwarranted child separations and imposing “concentration camp” conditions on suffering migrants, now claiming the detention centers are “inhumane” and migrants are “drinking out of toilets.” Snowflake AOC even accused border officers of “laughing in front of her” and making her feel “unsafe.”

Our daughter, a military officer, is currently deployed on the southern border in one of those facilities AOC visited earlier this week. What really happened? During her visit, Representative AOC was aggressive and hostile toward border officials, even wagging her finger at them. When agents attempted to explain the overwhelming situations they are handling or why child separations are occurring, AOC was only interested in furthering her politics, not protecting children.

Here are just a few recent firsthand stories:

• Since families receive priority processing over single adults, children are being rented by their real families for $100 USD. Fraudulent birth certificates abound.
• Spanish speaking border agents questioned one “family” man if he had any property to declare. Pointing to the two-year-old child next to him, whose name he did not even know, the man said, “that is my property.”
• Teenage girls are being sexually violated repeatedly during their journey north.
• Hundreds of sick children, many laden with contagious diseases like measles, malaria, influenza and the like are crossing the border.

In each of these situations, border agents at great risk to their own health, deal with migrants professionally and insure children are receiving proper medical care or protection.

Our daughter is one year older than AOC. While AOC was a waitress and tending bar after graduating from Boston University, our daughter was conducting migrant interdiction and rescues at sea off the coasts of Florida and Cuba. Catholic mission trips to Latin America serving disadvantaged youth and the poorest of children abandoned to orphanages gave our daughter experiences in her youth that shaped her to act like a leader with compassion and character in adulthood.

Representative AOC, on the other hand, is an example of the immature, unqualified, unthinking candidates who get elected when the rest of us fail to participate in politics and civic life. Yet, AOC insists she is opposed because of who she is--her identity--not what she does and how she acts. No, AOC's conduct on the border this past week reveals her "inferior" character.

What can be done?

This 4th of July holiday week, or during your vacation later this summer, take a break from your leisure to reflect on where you can do more to help our civil discourse and contribute to the common good. Begin by contacting your legislator. Write a letter. Make a phone call. Plan to vote. Participate!

Or, as Plato reminds us, live with the likes of AOC.